HOUSTON — Arkansas coach Dave Van Horn was seething while standing on the field at Minute Maid Park in Houston late Sunday night.
His Razorbacks had just lost to Baylor 3-2 to become the only one of six teams to go winless at this weekend’s Shriners Hospitals for Children College Classic.
To add to his misery, Van Horn had just been told that his team would have to stay overnight in Houston instead of fly home because the day’s action had lasted too long.
“This whole weekend was a pretty good learning experience not only for the players, but the coaches as well,” Van Horn said. “I just felt like we were very passive. We came down here thinking we were probably pretty good. The coaches weren’t sure, honestly.
“We have some incredibly tough road series this year and if we don’t play better on the road it is going to be a long year, because I didn’t see much from our offense. When guys were in scoring position, we didn’t hit the ball well.”
Arkansas was 4-for-29 with runners in scoring position this weekend and had 41 strikeouts in losses to Oklahoma, Texas and Baylor. The Bears came into the event 5-3 and were named champion by virtue of being the only team to win all three games.
Van Horn's Razorbacks (7-3) had not trailed while wining their first seven games.
“It’s like I just told them, the next time we go on the road, we go to Mississippi State, but I am not sure if we can play on the road yet,” Van Horn said. “We’ve got a lot of work to do.”
Van Horn thought the second inning set a tone Sunday night. Braydon Webb singled and Jacob Nesbit reached on a fielder's choice with one out, but Cole Austin popped up to the first baseman and Zack Gregory struck out looking to strand them on the corners.
“We have runners at first and third, one out and we don’t score,” Van Horn said. “We have seen a lot of that lately.”
What rankled Van Horn even more was that he felt like his pitching was pretty good over the weekend, minus the first two innings Saturday when Texas scored all of its runs in an 8-7 victory. The Longhorns scored three unearned runs on four Arkansas errors.
“You take away two innings yesterday and our pitching was pretty good," Van Horn said. "Our bullpen was pretty good. There were a lot of things that I saw that were pretty good from the pitching staff.
“We have got to get it straightened out as far as our starters, and, obviously, offensively we have got to do a lot better job scoring when we have the opportunity to score because we left a lot of people on base today, yesterday and the day before.”
Van Horn benched struggling shortstop Casey Martin and shook up the batting order Sunday, but didn’t get the results he wanted even though the Razorbacks out-hit the Bears, 8-6.
“I didn’t see a whole lot,” Van Horn said. “I put some guys in and they went 0-for-4, 0-for-3, strikeouts, pop ups. I was just trying to give some guys the opportunity to play on the road against good competition, play in their home state and in front of their parents...and saw some good things, saw some not so good. I have got to get that lineup figured out.”
Arkansas starter Kole Ramage (1-1) pitched five solid innings for the Razorbacks in his second start of the season. Ramage allowed 2 runs on 5 hits and a walk, and struck out 6 Bears.
He gave up a run in the fourth and fifth innings before turning the game over to Elijah Trest, who gave up Davion Downey’s home run that put Baylor ahead 3-0 in the sixth.
“Ramage had good stuff,” Van Horn said. “The first two runs, he made some mistakes. I mean he gave up a hit on an 0-2 count, then he throws the ball in the dirt or something like that, base hit, boom, they score.”
Caden Monke pitched 1 1/3 scoreless innings and Zebulon Vermillion added a clean ninth for the Razorbacks.
Arkansas rallied for a pair of runs in the eighth when Heston Kjerstad singled, Matt Goodheart hit an RBI double and Braydon Webb hit an RBI single. Webb advanced to second base on a throw to the plate to give the Razorbacks the tying run in scoring position with two outs.
The inning ended when Jacob Nesbit struck out looking at a 2-2 pitch from reliever Daniel Caruso, who came into the game specifically for that at-bat.
Van Horn said Webb's play was "great" Sunday. Batting seventh, Webb went 3-for-4 after sitting out Saturday's game.
Webb's batting average fell to .233 following a 1-for-4 performance that included two strikeouts in a loss to Oklahoma on Friday. Webb has been the team's leadoff hitter in most games this season.
“He can still hit leadoff for us, but I just want to settle him down a little bit and maybe he wouldn’t feel the pressure of getting on base," Van Horn said. "I think he got three hits today, had a really nice day at the plate and he is a good hitter.”
The Razorbacks will fly home Monday. Arkansas is scheduled to play its first midweek game of the season against Illinois State on Tuesday at 3 p.m., then will host South Alabama for a weekend series beginning Friday.
“I am glad we are playing Tuesday,” Van Horn said “We need to play, see a couple of more pitchers and get some guys going offensively."
Van Horn said freshman right hander Blake Adams is likely to start the Razorbacks' game against Illinois State.